WMAL

[Nan and Sandy Sanders]

I wonder if WMAL AM will be on the air after the land is sold off. 
They have a complex antenna pattern ( 
http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=73250  down load 
pattern plots) that will take a few acres for an array. I don't think 
AM radio will be a viable business in a few years.
The local AM situation in my part of East Texas (Gregg County ) is 3 
stations. A 1 Kw station owned by Access 1 ( I think ) with ESPN 
programming and crap audio. Another 1Kw  station owned by a local guy 
who also owns a class A FM station and another AM station. It has a 
good signal, good programming and might sell enough commercials to 
pay the power bill. The third station is about 1000 yards from me and 
is owned by a guy who owns 3 AM stations and lives 300 miles away. 
For the first year after I moved here it was no signal at all, 
carrier no audio, carrier with hum, very short periods of audio and 
for a few weeks white noise about 20 DB above the normal noise level 
from around 1100 KHz to about 1900 KHz ( yes into the 160 meter band 
). I was able to talk to the contract engineer ( who maintains around 
100 stations in parts of 3 states) and showed him what the station 
looked like on the spectrum analyzer. For about the last 3 months it 
has had a good signal with fair audio. They transmit the audio of an 
Internet radio station with ids and commercials inserted. I have no 
idea if any body listens to the station. As one who grew up on AM 
radio, I find the situation some what sad.
      Sandy
      WB5MMB


At 05:16 PM 2/15/2015, lstoskopf at cox.net wrote:
>I listen from Kansas to John Batchelor show almost every night on 
>the WEB!  WMAL has the least intrusive commercial policy.  Who needs 
>towers anymore with XM Radio in the car and streaming radio.  I was 
>chatting here with the morning show AM host the other day, he has 
>the highest rated morning show in Central and Western Kansas, town 
>of 50K.  Claims to have 1,600 listeners.  K1N did much better!
>
>N0UU
>
>---- Karl W4KRL <W4KRL at arrl.net> wrote:
> > Pictures from the AMRAD tour to WMAL in March 2011.[image: Inline
> > image 3][image:
> > Inline image 2][image: Inline image 1]
> >
> > *73 Karl W4KRL*
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Nan and Sandy Sanders 
> <radiodog77 at pobox.com
> > > wrote:
> >
> > > http://www.radioworld.com/article/wmal-tower-site-up-for-sale/274462
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > Tacos at amrad.org
> > > https://lists.amrad.org/mailman/listinfo/tacos
> > >